The link between Beefy Miracle and Spherical Cow was "A beefy miracle is something that has never been observed and so is a spherical cow." The link between Spherical Cow and the new name must be different than that link, and different from any other previous link.

General links automatically rejected General links such as "is a word" or "is a location", while technically within the scope of the rules, will most certainly be rejected by the Fedora Board. Remember, the goal is to come up with a creative link to Spherical Cow. The following links will also likely be rejected:

Names of living people

Well-known trademarks

Please try to find a truly original and obscure link!

Naming Schedule

Name collection: October 9 through October 16 (23:59:59 UTC)

List to Fedora Board for review: October 17 - Oct. 24

Legal Review of Board approved names: October 25 through October 31

Setup of Voting Application: November 1 (whenever the legal finishes the audit)

Community vote on final name: November 2 through November 8 (23:59:59 UTC)

Name announced: November 9

Name Suggestions

Please read carefully. The instructions below will help prevent some suggestions from being eliminated early.

How to use this table

Come up with a name idea. Put the name in the first column.

Determine whether it passes the "is-a" test. You must be able to truthfully complete the sentence "Spherical Cow is a <...>, and so is <YOUR_NAME>." The link to the new name cannot be the same as the link from Beefy Miracle to Spherical Cow, nor any other previous link. Mark the link in the appropriate column, such as "type of chemical reaction," "deep-sea organism."

Don't choose obvious links, because they usually result in uninteresting names.

Don't choose very general names or unclear links.

Don't choose names of living people, or well-known trademarks.

Do choose obscure links to interesting things, which makes for a better name.

Do avoid all previous links wherever possible.

Do make sure there are at least a couple of ways to link out of the new name to the next name -- and they must be unique too!

Use Google to search for possible trademark collisions. First search for the term itself along with "+software", and then broaden your search to include "+computer", "+hardware", "+technology", "+IT", and so on. Do not skimp on this step.

If you find a collision, it is best to find another name. Names that cause collisions will be eliminated by Red Hat's Legal department and thus waste their time, which is a valuable commodity for Fedora. Help us maximize their effectiveness by weeding out names that are trademarks of other entities, especially those in the IT industry.

If the collision is outside the IT/computing market, you can still submit the name but you should note the collision in the "Tested" column, and include a link to the site where the collision was found.

If you find no collisions, make that notation in the "Tested" column.

Do not mark the approval columns. These are reserved for the approval authorities such as the Board and Red Hat Legal.

Suggestion Table

Name

"Is a..."

Tested

Initial Approval

Comments

Themeable

Board Approved

Legal Approved !

A Spherical Cow is not a decent release name, and so is "", because it's not a name at all

No collisions in a null set

Release names are annoying and create extra work, and recently caused the project to appear silly and unprofessional

Anything Generic

Parabolic Potassium

A Spherical Cow is shaped nutrition item, and so is Parabolic Potassium

Potassium is an element on the Periodic Table, and is not trademarked -- Free to use! It has an atomic number of 19 so it matches perfectly with Fedora 19

We could use this time to transition into using the Periodic Table of Elements for future Fedora releases (F20 could be Calcium and further). This has been discussed on the Advisory Board list in the past but no official decision made yet. Offering as a suggestion to make the transition

No; If you disagree please suggest a visual theme.

Spintronic Prism

A Spherical Cow is a 3-D object and so is any spintronics in prism form

No; I couldn't find an image of this. If you disagree, please suggest a visual theme.

Solar Wind

A Spherical Cow is a gas filled mass which would achieve a very high kinetic energy by farting and a Solar Wind is a stream of charged particles with a very high kinetic energy created when the sun farts

Connection is obvious: Anaconda newUI was planned as a Fedora 17 feature, but it has been delayed and now is landing in Fedora 18. In Fedora 19 it should be stable enough and way better than old one. So, let's celebrate this great revolution! More conservative explanation: It's an animal like a cow.